Giovanni Antonio Lecchi

Giovanni Antonio Lecchi, also written Giannantonio Lecchi, was an Italian Jesuit, mathematician, engineer and physicist, born in Milan on 17 November 1702 and dead on 24 July 1776. He came from a prominent noble family of Milan that owned Villa Lecchi in Crescenzago. After his studies at the Jesuit College of Brera he joined the Society of Jesus in 1718 and was first professor of humanities at Pavia and Vercelli, then taught mathematics and hydraulics at Brera from 1738 to 1773. He also served as technical consultant to the Senate of Milan on hydraulic matters. His first work, published in Milan in 1739, was on the theory of light, covering optics, perspective, catoptrics and dioptrics. His second dealt with mathematical analysis according to the elements of the method of Newton and gave a full course of geometry, algebra and trigonometry. In his hydraulic papers he tried to apply mathematics to measuring the speed and flow rate of water.